2025-Mar-22 - Primordial
This week's randomly selected song Primordial is track #15 from disc #3 of my triple CD album It Was All Just a Dream.
Primordial was never officially released on an album or as a single prior to its inclusion on It Was All Just a Dream, although I had posted an early version of the song on YouTube. I re-recorded every single part of the song for this official release.
The Story Behind The Song
The idea for Primordial came when I was test driving a new guitar model made by my good friend and luthier Jeremiah Augustine of TigerLuv Guitars. I wanted to come up with a piece that showcased the guitar's extended 7-string range and its versatility in both clean and overdriven tonal contexts. The song came together quickly because the instrument was so playable.
There are some unmistakably metal-influenced riffs in the song combined with some soaring melodic lines and ambient textures. And the end of the song devolves into a chaotic avant-garde funk theme. While the original version did demonstrate the guitar's versatility, I ultimately had to give the guitar back, so the re-recording of the song featured guitars from my own collection.
I named the song Primordial because it felt like the song evolved from a calm and simple origin into chaotic complexity by the end.
The Music Theory Behind The Song
Primordial doesn't rely much on traditional "functional" music theory. Like a lot of music in the metal and progressive genres, Primordial features a lot of non-diatonic scales and chromaticism -- fancy ways of saying that rather than the more classical or pop sounding approach to chords, scales, and melodies, this song relies heavily on more exotic sounds and harmony that emphasizes tension.
These types of musical devices include scales like the Phrygian dominant, diminished scales, and a heavy use of chromatic passages that emphasize intervals like half-steps and tritones.
These scales and chromatic passages are great at building tension, but don't really have a built-in mechanism for resolution of that tension. To accommodate this, the tense metal riffs and grinding dissonance sections of the song are followed by passages in a stable B minor key that feature soaring melodic reprieves from the tension. This gives the song the tension and release cycle needed to convey a compelling sonic story.
The chaotic ending of the song is intentionally tense and unresolved as it leaves the listener in a state of anticipation.
Guitars and Amps
I used five guitars on Primordial. For the heavy rhythm guitar parts, I played my pair of 7-string guitars, my Jackson RR7R and my Ibanez RG7PCM both through my Mesa Boogie Mark V:25 IIC+ voice. For the clean guitar parts, I played my Ibanez RG7PCM and my Fender Telecaster, both played through my Mark V:25 Fat voice. For the lead guitar parts, I played my Ibanez JS and Ibanez RG 5120M through my Mark V:25 IIC+ voice.
Rhythm & Clean Guitars
 1998 Jackson RR7R |
 2017 Ibanez RG7PCM |
 2021 Fender Telecaster |
Lead Guitars
 2019 Ibanez RG5120M |
 2018 Ibanez JS1CR30 |
If you love what you hear and want to support the music I make, please consider purchasing It Was All Just a Dream on CD or digital download. I will gladly personalize and autograph your copy.
https://chrisstark.com/it-was-all-just-a-dream
Keep an eye out for next Saturday's song spotlight, and as always, thank you sincerely for all of your support!
Love, Aloha, and Rock!
❤️😎🎸